S Club 7 reveal plans to reunite for 2023 - and other pop groups from their era have done the same

It’s been well over two decades since seven fresh-faced performers appeared on the CBBC series Miami 7, as S Club 7 dropped their debut single Bring It All Back back in 1999 and earned the top spot in the UK Single Chart. Nostalgic fans are once again asked to Don’t Stop Moving with the announcement the group is set to reunite for a UK tour to celebrate that first release.

No official date has been announced for the tour, owing to an ongoing back injury suffered by member Jo O’Meara, but reports have suggested that the band will confirm tour dates across Summer 2023 and that the reunion was the brainchild of music mogul Simon Fuller. Those reports also suggested that Fuller would only be on board with the reunion if the original seven members were all on board.

The band was a huge success during the late 90s with hits including the immensely catchy singles S Club Party, Reach and the more sobering Never Had A Dream Come True, but life outside of S Club has been tumultuous for some members of the band.

A high profile case of bullying in the Celebrity Big Brother house led to Jo O’Meara being reviled for her behaviour alongside the late Jade Goody, Jack Goody and Danielle Lloyd towards Shilpa Shetty in 2007.

There was also the controversy regarding three of the male members of the band being reprimanded for trying to buy marijuana in Covent Garden which nearly led to several high-profile endorsements pulling out of deals. But for many of us, we simply remember how annoyingly catchy their songs were - and continue to be to this day.

PeopleWorld has had a case of the nostalgia bug after hearing plans of the reunion, and has taken a look at some of the late 90s and early 00s acts that have reformed, or planning to reform, after several years out of the limelight.

All Saints

From their baggy cargo trousers to their unusual take on a Red Hot Chili Peppers’ favourite, All Saints have reunited not once but twice over the last two decades. The first reunion became a point of contention though between the act and their label, Parlophone, after their third studio album in 2006, Studio 1, failed to meet expectations and a subsequent UK tour was cancelled.

Speaking about the failed first reunion in 2012, Melanie Blatt told I-D Magazine that “I don't think it was done for the right reasons. I know that I did it for the money. We got signed before we had even made music again, it wasn't like we felt we had something to give back to the world. We were given an opportunity and took it, without really thinking about it too hard.”

Their second reunion from 2013 to present day has been much more successful, including supporting the likes of Craig David and Westlife on national tours from 2019 and headlining their own tour in 2018 around the release of their latest record, Testament. That album fared much better in the UK Album Charts, reaching number 15 in the first week of release.

McFly

No - not McBusted, which is a completely different mash-up altogether. We’re talking about the original lovers of the girl with 5 Colours In Her Name. Did anyone manage to know her name? McFly formed in the early 00s after Tom Fletcher lost out to Charlie Simpson as a member of Busted, but Island Records kept him in their sights by allowing him to write songs for the boy band.

His talents as a performer in his own right soon followed as Fletcher teamed up with Danny Jones, Dougie Poynter and Harry Judd to form McFly and earn immediate success with their debut album, Room on the 3rd Floor, topping the UK album chart upon release. The band ended up teaming with Busted to create the supergroup McBusted, but the dreaded “indefinite hiatus” announcement was made in 2018 as the band pursued solo projects.

However, being indefinite in the music business isn’t always a lengthy amount of time, as the band announced they’d be releasing new music in 2020 and going on tour once again. Covid-19 then happened, delaying the band’s tour but eventually, fans got to see the pop-rock band on the road throughout 2021.

SugaBabes

Longtime fans of SugaBabes might be familiar with the riddle of the Ship of Theseus: if an object that has had all of its original components replaced remains the same object. That was the riddle posed when the last remaining original member of the group, Keisha Buchanan, left the band in late 2009.

The original threesome of Buchanan, Mutya Buena and Siobhán Donaghy decided to get back together in 2012 under the name Mutya Keisha Siobhán due to a dispute over who holds the original band name. However come 2019, the band won back their rights and are now set for a busy 2023; supporting Take That at their headlining BST Hyde Park show in London in July and a headline show at London The O2 in September of this year.

B*Witched

Another blast from the past, B*Witched reunited for the ITV 2 series The Big Reunion in 2012, which led to viewers discovering that the Irish girl group had problems within their group that led to their breakup in 2002. After a clearing of the air and success at their one-off show at the Hammersmith Apollo (the finale of the series), the band has continued to tour throughout the 10s and 20s.

Recently, the band was selected to act as special guests during the reunion tour of another pop act from that golden era of pop music: Blue. Since 2021, the group has also released a series of podcasts under the title Starting Over with B*Witched.

Blur

One of the poster boys of Cool Britannia back in the 90s, Blur confirmed their most recent reunion in late 2022 with the announcement of their first headline show since 2015, when the London group toured their latest album The Magic Whip.

The group, playing Wembley Stadium on July 8, has been incredibly optimistic about the new reunion, with Graham Coxon admitting “I’m really looking forward to playing with my Blur brothers again and revisiting all those great songs. Blur live shows are always amazing for me: a nice guitar and an amp turned right up and loads of smiling faces.”

My Chemical Romance

Who (of a certain age bracket) could forget when My Chemical Romance topped both the album and singles charts in the UK after the release of 2006’s The Black Parade. Such was the public interest in the alternative rock act that even the Daily Mail fired shots at a band that created a “cult of self-harm."

The band decided to call it a day in 2013, with lead singer Gerard Way going on to find new fame with his comic book series The Umbrella Academy which was adapted into a Netflix series debuting in 2019. But many adult “emo kids” were pining for the band to reunite, so after a successful one-off show in 2019, My Chemical Romance planned a worldwide tour for 2020.

Covid-19 naturally occurred, but that hasn’t stopped the plans of a tour taking place, with all dates moved to last year including a highly-anticipated return to Milton Keynes in 2022 which is currently wrapping up in Australia and New Zealand in March.

Spice Girls

A bit of a cop-out for a band that has reunited, but whenever the Spice Girls announce a reunion show, there seems to be only one question in recent times fans of the iconic girl group have on their mind: is Victoria Beckham going to be part of the reunion on this occasion?

She refused to take part in the group’s 2019 reunion tour to concentrate on her family and her business, and when talk of a possible Glastonbury reunion was brought up, Beckham once again seemed apprehensive about returning to the fold.

"I had so much fun being in the Spice Girls," she explained to Andy Cohen on his show Watch What Happens Live in late 2022. "But I think now with everything else I've got going on – with my fashion, and my beauty line, four children – I couldn't commit to that."